VCC Akld Bulletin March 2026

March 2026

Coming Events

All events are held at our clubrooms unless otherwise specified.

MARCH

APRIL

Note

Chairman’s Report

At the blink of an eyelid, another month has passed.

The carpark at the Waiuku Cosmopolitan club was the start point for our Annual Veteran Run earlier in February. What a sight it was. The line-up of Veteran Cars looking magnificent and along came the perfect back-drop – one of the Glenbrook Vintage Railway’s Steam Trains. Cameras were clicking madly to catch the perfect shot. On their return from the 30+ mile rally routes, the participants were very happy, and, after loading their vehicles on to their trailers, went into the Cossie Club for lunch. First place in the Long Route was Paul Brinsden, with his lovely 1911 Model T, from North Shore Branch. First place in the Short Route, and overall winners were the Charabanc Team. Congratulations to you all.

It was great to see so many of our members wandering around the Ellerslie Car Show admiring the many vehicles on display. I must say that John and Pat Campbell’s Jeepster looked magnificent in the line-up for concourse judging.

This month’s Club Run was poorly attended. Club Captain, Tracey, had spent a lot of time plotting the run. What will it take to get you out on our Club Runs? Seriously, if you want to let us know what would bring you out to join us, please send me a email or talk to me the next time we are together.

As this report has a deadline to keep, I am looking forward to meeting up with Murray Trounson and Neil Beckenham at the Noggin and Natter evening and listening to John Pratt talking about the William C. Daldy Tugboat on Saturday at our Club Afternoon.

Don’t forget to get your entry form into Rodger and Val for the Autumn Tour. This is an event open to ALL club eligible vehicles (ie. cars, motorcycles and commercials). Rodger and Val would like entries in before they head off to Nelson for the Vero International Rally at the end of this week.

So, next stop – Nelson see you there. Safe motoring everyone. Shaaran.

Club Captain’s Log

It’s been a busy month and for many of us, it’s now all go until Nelson. It was good to see a couple of other Auckland entries supporting Eastern Bay of Plenty’s Annual Rally over Waitangi weekend. A most enjoyable day motoring and finally some decent sunshine.

The Mid-week run saw a good number of cars motor out to the back of Waiuku to the Awhitu windfarm where I understand the group got a great run down on the ins and outs of wind turbines, some great views down to Port Waikato and also picnicked on the lawn outside the farm homestead, which is also of an age to hold a lot of history.

Sunday’s run to the Secret Waterfall Café and Gardens in Mauku (under new ownership - better known as Wrights Watergardens) was a smaller turnout. It was Fords all round with 4 Model A’s and a 39 coupe at the start. At least our final check marshal, Norm Dewhurst, had taken the covers off to give “Felicia” a short run and ensure it wasn ’t a Ford whitewash. After a bit of a chat at the start, we decided to head out and have coffee there without using the rally route, which means I have it “ up my sleeve” for later. Stephen and I raced round to collect the silent checks and joined the group for coffee and some great banter.

I’m sure some of you were at the Art Deco Festival. As always, there are some beautiful vehicles in all the parade photos on social media. The Highland Fling closes out the month, yes, it is still on. However, the latest note from the organisers tells us there has been much last-minute replanning due to the damage sustained in the horrendous storm a couple of weekends ago. Sadly, some of the farm tracks are unusable. The extremes of these 2 events remind me that there are many ways we choose to enjoy our old vehicles; our Club offers so many options.

There is no run in March, as many of us will be attending the Vero Festival in Nelson. In April, we look forward to our Autumn Tour. Entry Forms are in the Week Ahead every week and were in the middle of the February Bulletin. Rodger and Val have plotted a great day's motoring, so remember to get your entry in, remember ALL vehicles can enter!

See you out there...

Tracey

Mid-week Tourers

A warm Wednesday welcomed us to the first meeting of the Mid-weekers for 2026. Seventeen cars and twenty-nine members all excitedly waiting for the muchanticipated run to the Awhitu Windfarm. At 10:30 am Jo gave the small briefing and we were off, winding our way through the back roads of Karaka out toward Patumahoe, and on to Karioitahi.

When we arrived, we were greeted by a very bubbly and excited Andrea, the owner of the farm and windmill. After a lovely lunch under trees that were planted in the 1800s Andrea gave us a brief history of the farm and the Dutch Windmills. She told us about how they were originally attached to a tulip farm house. Andrea answered any and all questions we had about both the farm and windmills.

As part of the Health and Safety briefing from Andrea’ s son-in-law Peter, we lined up to make the trek up to the windmills. We were told to be aware that it was a steep road and to ensure our vehicles were capable of getting up. All the cars made it up the incline, with no trouble, except for a HiAce which had to be left at the bottom, with the driver getting a ride in a 1924 Oakland.

When we arrived at windmill 3, we got out and had a look around the giant metal structure which was the base and foundations of a windmill they were currently working on. We were blown away by the sprawling views of the sand dunes and Tasman Sea, we even got to see a couple of paragliders flying round from the neighbouring property.

Next we made our way to windmill 2, where the brave ones of us went out and stood under a functioning Windmill. The family’s extensive knowledge was put to the test again when more questions came about the windmills. We got to see first-hand how large these structures were, and how quiet, with the only major noise being when they turned more into the wind.

Pictures taken and knowledge acquired we headed off back down the road to the farm where we got to see the blades and an inner tower lying on the ground ready to be put to work. Thank you to all who joined us for this wonderful day.

Jo Bieleski (more pictures from the day overleaf)

Mid-week Tourer’s Pics

Thanks to Diane Coleman for these pictures from the Awhitu Wind Farm.

Library Notes

This month we would like to acknowledge receipt of a small collection of motorcycle books from member Des Redgwell. These came from a friend of his who was not a club member, and have been added to our ever increasing motorcycle section.

Our intrepid editor has located a copy of Motoring journalist Frank Derato’s biography of Victor W. Pagé: Automotive and Aviation Pioneer. This is a fascinating collection of material about this pioneer. The book contains many very high quality patent drawings from his early exploits, together with interesting stories of his many and varied activities in the field of early automotive and aeronautic projects. Definitely worth more than a casual glance.

We also had a visit from Chris Wood. He came in to drop off a family heirloom –“The Riley Book”, a compilation of technical and service information for the RILEY 9 - Plus Ultra Series. The book is full of technical information, articles, and news clippings fastidiously accumulated by his father, Douglas Wood, after he acquired a Riley 9 Monaco Saloon Plus. He has disassembled a standard Riley issued instruction book section-by-section and inserted in each section many additional drawings, photographs, and pages of typewritten notes from his extensive research on every part of his car. It also includes notes, photos, and clippings of various other models through the years up to 1939. He has included supplementary technical manuals, instruction sheets, and parts lists from other suppliers of components such as SU and BTH Magnetos, etc. Included is a wide-ranging section on tuning the engine and chassis; with information gleaned from articles published in the magazines “AUTO CAR” and “MOTOR” over the years. The depth of information and the excellent drawings are extremely comprehensive. The complete collection has been reassembled in a period binding.

In the cover pocket we came across correspondence between Douglas and Nuffield exports where he was asking for advice on some service aspects of the car in mid-1946. Riley Motors was taken over by the Nuffield Organization (William Morris) in 1938 following financial difficulties and the appointment of a receiver. One specific question Doug asked, related to a factory modification where the exhaust camshaft had an extension added to drive a fan pulley, and not mentioned in any of the manuals. His car was producing a considerable “Klonk” at idling speed caused by end play in the camshaft. He was asking if there were any sectional drawings for this modification showing the component layout. They courteously replied with a verbal description of the arrangement of thrust races, and springs etc. but informed him there was no factory arrangement drawing which they could supply. Really! How did the workers in the factory know how to assemble this variation!!

This book will be kept in the Notfor-Loan section of the library which means it cannot be removed from the library, but members are welcome to consult it and if necessary make photocopies of information that is useful.

The Library Team

Annual Veteran Run Report

Numbers were down somewhat for this year’s Auckland Veteran Run, I suspect mainly due to unpredictable weather, however, thankfully the rain held off for our event. Some entrants may have been deterred by heavy rain while still at home. A couple of veteran cars have been sold out of Auckland, and illness took it's toll.

Twelve out of fourteen entrants lined up at the start, and as usual, it was a Model T benefit with FN, Dodge, Talbot and Sunbeam providing variation. The long route travelled through Aka Aka, Otaua, Maioro, Whiriwhiri, including the steep and testing Whiriwhiri Hill, and around the back of Waiuku towards Taurangaruru and Kohekohe before returning to Waiuku on the Waiuku Awhitu road, with a little tour around the houses thrown in to keep mileage up. The short route was much the same, simply leaving out the Maioro, Whiriwhiri and Kohekohe parts.

Out of branch support was from North Shore’s Paul Collins and Kevin Lord in the 1913 FN, Paul Brinsden in his 1911 Model T and Chris Lawrence of Waikato in the 1913 Model T. Chris’ son Leon, see BW 397 page 9, followed the run in a 1927 Ford T speedster, although not veteran we must encourage younger members. They played an important part when Wayne Welch had a puncture and they went back to Chris’ place to get a tyre or tube, and then they happily drove off. Wayne and Karen Welch drove for a further kilometre before another flat, fortunately they had another tube, as the valve stem had been ripped out of the other one. They had a hand pump which wasn't cooperating well. After some time the plotter/trail cars driver’s memory functioned and he realised he had an electric tyre inflator in his ute. This was engaged and the tyre given reasonable pressure, however because of the lost time Wayne and Karen simply returned to the start.

Lunch was held at the Waiuku Cosmopolitan Club and Paul Brinsiden won the long route in the Model T and the branch Charabanc won the short route and overall.

Now, a good thing should be made known, prior to the event Kelvin Healey was having nightmares with a stuck valve on his Sunbeam, with all the well known penetrating oils failing to perform, he found a product called "Mouse Milk" used in the aviation industry, he bought some and made up a little device to get it around the top of the valve guide and had quick success, the stuff is sold here by Pilot Shop and is about $30 for a bottle, it doesn’t come in aerosol form. Kelvin completed the run successfully.

John Stokes

Annual Veteran Run in pictures...

Photos courtesy of Paul Smith

Welcome to our New Members

A most sincere welcome is extended to the most recent new members. We hope to see you taking an active part in Branch activities whenever possible. Should you require any assistance or advice, please feel free to ask any Committee member?

Vintage Section Notes

With the Veteran Run coinciding with our meeting our numbers were, as expected, lighter. A couple of weeks ago Ross Bellamy delighted me with a Bedford badge for our W Bedford and today he presented me with the missing “British” part. They are brass with a shadow backdrop and will clean up to really enhance the old girl. Thank you Ross! He has a keen eye for interesting memorabilia and also showed us some 1920’s Albion badges. Ross gave us an update on the 1920’s musical horn which he is restoring. An electric motor-powered vane pump produces the air pressure which is then controlled by switchgear to produce the tunes.

Tim Gray is helping a friend with his 1923 Model T Ford which has starter motor problems. The first Model T with a starter motor was in 1918. Tim also rebuilds the trembler coils which are at the heart of the ignition system. Acquiring the large capacitor is the hard part as they have to be imported.

David Goryl has repacked the gland on his Oakland water pump which has stopped the leak. He also brought in to show us the badly broken flex plate from his Rolls Royce. Despite its condition it still powered the car – albeit noisily. He is also enjoying fettling his very pretty Mini Cooper. A leaking sliding window in the driver ’s door was traced to the drain holes in the trim not being lined up carefully when the car was being restored previously.

Neil Bieleski is about to take delivery of a Nissan Navara to tow his Triumph Herald down to the Vero in March.

John Towers has been making good use of the very comprehensive panel shop equipment up in the barn and is delighted with the sills that he is re-making for the Chev. Last month he was working on the fuel tank for the truck but it turned to custard. A better replacement was found in the North Shore Branch’s spares department.

John and the barn team have now successfully restored the wheel balancing machine to full working order.

It is also noted that Brian Hosking’s Model A Coupe has now found a home in a large collection in Gore.

Murray and Penny Firth

Autumn Tour Prizegiving

including ANZAC Display

Saturday, 25th April

(ANZAC DAY)

From 3:30 pm

Join us for the Autumn Tour prizegiving along with a display of ANZAC Memorabilia

We encourage you to bring along any memorabilia that you may want to display and, if you wish, talk about.

We will then enjoy the Noggin & Natter from 4:30 pm followed by a light BBQ dinner together at 6:00 pm.

You can register for the BBQ on the Autumn Tour entry form. If you are not attending the Tour but wish to attend the BBQ, please complete the Entry Form and mark as BBQ ONLY! Please pay the $10 per person, and do not pay the Entry Fee.

Motorcycle Section Notes

As Lynda was attending a Pokeno Civil Defence meeting I picked up Malcolm Brown and we headed for the clubrooms. Our guest speaker Malcolm Stapleton arrived at the same time on his Italian Energica electric Bike.

Jeremy helped bring the bike in through the front door after removing the rear panniers, and then set it up in front of our table.

I quickly went up to the kitchen with the sandwiches, cakes and sausage rolls that Lynda had prepared ready for our afternoon tea.

The meeting opened at 2.30pm. We had 37 in attendance with10 bikes parked out the back. We had one visitor Andy Powell, a Honda owner.

Someone shouted out that it was member Michael ‘’Killer’’ Watts birthday so we all sang happy birthday to him.

Martin asked me to read out his golfing joke as he had left his reading glasses at home, so I did, and it went down well with the crowd.

COMING UP

Martin encouraged people to come along to the club afternoon with speaker John Pratt, the chairman of the society for the Vintage Steam tug William C Daldy.

He reminded us about the Brits & Euro Classic Car Show on the 1st March, saying we had around 20 club motorcycles entered. This show has closed registration at 1200 vehicles across 75 clubs. The bonus is that it is free entry for the public.

The speaker of the March meeting will be Mark Darrah with his $600,000 race track Creighton Rotary motorcycle.

GUEST SPEAKER

Malcolm Stapleton is a local man from Mt Eden, he rode his Italian Energica to the meeting, he showed us a publicity video on the machine that was filmed in the Italian alps.

He brought the bike in through the Australian Electric Motor Company for $55,000 in 2022. It comes with panniers and a top box that can hold 120 litres of luggage. Its speed is governed to180 kph, it weighs 260 kilos, but it can reach 100 kph in 2.33 seconds. Malcolm says it handles well, and it can even reverse, but parking on a hill is a problem, as unlike a normal motorcycle where you can leave it in gear, you cannot on this bike, it really needs a hand brake to be fitted, the bike does have an oil cooled radiator to keep the battery cool when its being charged. Malcolm said he can do around 240 ks at open road speeds.

Motorcycle Section Notes continued

In 2018 Energica was chosen by Dorna Sport as the sole manufacturer for 4 years for the FIM Enel Moto E World Championship section of Moto GP, they presented two models from the Italian house – the EGO and the EVA Ribelle.

The Energica project was started in 2009 in Modena, Italy, by CRP Group, an international company involved in computer numerical control machining and additive manufacturing with advanced selective laser sintering materials. Energica Motor Company was officially founded in 2014 with the aim of creating high-performance sustainable motorcycles.

On 28 March 2022, Energica Motor Company was delisted from the Milan Stock Exchange. The company was privatised and delisted by Ideanomics, Inc. Ideanomics gained a 72.42% stake in the company. The Cevolini family retained 17.62% ownership. This transaction was pioneered by Euro Scope Capital (First Europe), an Investment Bank based in New York. Energica Motor Company filed for a bankruptcy judicial liquidation on 14 October 2024. Sadly this American bank bled the company dry. But there is a Singaporean investment company that could possibly save the company and restart production, time will tell. Malcolm told is about the other bikes he owns - an MV Augusta F3 800cc and a 1000cc Aprila SV4.

Martin thanked Malcolm for coming to tell us about and show us the Energica.

Martin Spicer and Jack Clark

Chairman

Your Committee & Officers

Shaaran Price (Alan) Email: chairman@avvcc.org.nz

Vice Chairman/Continuous Membership Awards Steward

Glenn Morris (Marion) Email: glenn-maze@xtra.co.nz

H: 09 833 8575

M: 0204 195 2476

M: 021 136 5926

Secretary / New Members & Privacy Offcr / Bulletin & Website Editor / Branch Delegate

Jodi Tomlin (Paul) Secretary Email: secretary@avvcc.org.nz

Editor Email: editor@avvcc.org.nz

Treasurer

Ian Hubbard (Lesley) Email: treasurer@avvcc.org.nz

Club Captain / Trophy Steward

Tracey Winterbottom Email: clubcaptain@avvcc.org.nz

M: 021 678 258

M: 0274 426 748

H: 09 232 0246 (Stephen)

Committee Members

Martin Spicer (Lynda)

Motorcycle Section Rep/Entertainment

Email: motorcycle@avvcc.org.nz

Lynda Spicer (Martin) Social Convenor

M: 021 732 209

H: 09 233 6382

M: 022 102 5954

H: 09 233 6382 Email: spicerclan2017@gmail.com

Jeremy Lambert (Michelle) Clubroom Bookings/ Health & Safety Officer

Email: bookings@avvcc.org.nz

Rory King (Louann) Building Maintenance

Email: roryking53@gmail.com

Neil Stott (Christine) Spares Liaison

Email: neilxstott@gmail.com

Non-Committee Positions

Library Team Leader

Richard Green (Lois)

Spares Team Leader

Bill Hulse (Sherrill)

M: 021 189 3120

M: 027 576 7045

H: 09 579 6891

M: 021 530 302

M: 0274 949 059

VIC Officers

John Stokes Email: library@avvcc.org.nz

H: 09 489 2427

M: 021 818 334

Beaded Wheels Scribes

John Stokes

Jocelyn McAlpine

Peter Wood

Email: bill.sherrill@xtra.co.nz

H: 09 579 0494

Veteran Section Rep

John Stokes

Email: jcstokes96a@xtra.co.nz

H: 09 236 4582 or

M: 0272 772 108

Mid-week Tourers Co-ordinator Insurance

Jo Bieleski

Email: midweek@avvcc.org.nz

M: 027 943 1545

Clubrooms

Street & Postal Address:

Alan Price

Neil Stott

Email: vic@avvcc.org.nz

Vintage Section Rep

Murray Firth (Penny)

E: pennyandmurray@xtra.co.nz

H: 09 818 6434

Vero Consumer Insurance Specialist

F: 0800 505 905

Our Agency Number: 0300126

Phone: 09 579 5625

39 Fairfax Avenue, Penrose, Auckland 1061

Club Afternoon: Last Saturday of the month 2:30 pm

Clubrooms Open:

Second & fourth Thursdays of each month 7:30 to 10:00 pm, Every Saturday afternoon 4:30 to 6:30 pm

Branch Website: avvcc.org.nz